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Earth Overshoot Day is the day when—according to estimates—the total combined consumption of all human activity on Earth in a year overtakes the planet's ability to generate those resources for that year.
How is it measured ? "It's quite simple," says Dr. Mathis Wackernagel of the think tank Global Footprint Network. "We look at all the resource demands of humanity that compete for space, like food, fiber, timber, et cetera, then we look at how much area is needed to provide those services and how much productive surface is available."
Here's his bottom line metaphor. Earth Overshoot Day is like the day you spend more than your salary for a year, only you are all humans and your salary is Earth's biocapacity. Ideally, Overshoot Day would come after December 31. It wasn't too far off in 1970, when it occurred on December 23. But Overshoot Day creep has kicked in ever since. August 13 is the earliest yet—four days ahead of last year's previous record.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/150813-earth-overshoot-day-earlier/
(Score: 3, Funny) by khallow on Friday August 14 2015, @11:00PM
What the fuck good do you think all the sunlight shining upon Uranus will do here on Earth?
That's dumb. You would intercept that power inside the orbit of Mercury, of course.
(Score: 2) by TrumpetPower! on Friday August 14 2015, @11:22PM
You're either a really bad troll or a really bad comedian if you expect people to either take seriously or laugh at the idea that we're anywhere close to setting up photovoltaic panels on the surface of the Sun and running giant extension cords out to the Earth.
Your food obviously gets handed to you through the basement doorway and heated in the microwave. But on the rest of the planet, food comes from plants or things that eat plants, and those plants die without topsoil and water and lots of other things far more important than your particle-of-the-week fantasies.
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday August 15 2015, @12:24AM
As to the extension cord, there are various ways it can be done, such as beamed microwaves or transporting anti-matter. Some means may be a bit too exciting to transport to the Earth's surface, but it's just not that hard a problem when you're capturing most of the energy of a star rather than focusing your tunnel vision on a patch of dirt.
Your food obviously gets handed to you through the basement doorway and heated in the microwave. But on the rest of the planet, food comes from plants or things that eat plants, and those plants die without topsoil and water and lots of other things far more important than your particle-of-the-week fantasies.
You do realize that the entire food chain thing is a completely solved problem, top soil and all, from dirt to your plate? I'm merely pointing out that if we approach this rationally, rather than the stupid alarmist approach used in the article, we realize we have vast, sustainable resources at our disposal which are far beyond the paltry imagination of those authors. It also demonstrates the frivolous nature of the metric.
(Score: 2) by TrumpetPower! on Saturday August 15 2015, @12:30AM
You do realize that Star Trek is fantasy, don't you? And that whoppers like that and your casual suggestions we build a Dyson Sphere to solve all our problems make it plain you're an idiot completely out of touch with reality, no?
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday August 15 2015, @01:37PM
You do realize that the entire food chain thing is a completely solved problem, top soil and all, from dirt to your plate?
You do realize that Star Trek is fantasy, don't you?
So you don't realize this. Maybe you ought to read up on modern agricultural practices. No Star Trek technology is needed.
And that whoppers like that and your casual suggestions we build a Dyson Sphere to solve all our problems make it plain you're an idiot completely out of touch with reality, no?
I think rather it indicates your paltry imagination. This is a common problem with the people who claim we're using up resources despite the fact that we never run out of resources. We find ways to extract more of the resource, use or reuse it more efficiently, or use other things in its place. I used the Dyson Sphere example to demonstrate the ultimate absurdity of claiming that resources are restricted by surface area.
(Score: 2) by TrumpetPower! on Saturday August 15 2015, @02:50PM
Hey, I've got an idea.
You've got the solutions to all the world's problems, so why don't you...like...you know? Solve all the world's problems?
And if you say you can't, you're not in a position to or some other lame excuse like that, it only indicates your paltry imagination. After all, one of those jet-high mind fucks should do the trick, no?
So, what're you waiting for? The world needs a superhero to save it, and you know everything the superheroes do, so get out of your basement already and save the world!
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday August 15 2015, @09:00PM
Hey, I've got an idea.
You've got the solutions to all the world's problems, so why don't you...like...you know? Solve all the world's problems?
I don't even need to do that. As I noted before, the various problems mentioned are already solved. It's just not worth the bother to implement them at this time.